


The Night You Came Into My Life (aka The Red Rackham Case)

by Nonaynevernomore



Category: Classic Alice (Web Series)
Genre: Prequel, night out
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-06
Updated: 2014-11-06
Packaged: 2018-02-24 09:57:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,962
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2577329
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nonaynevernomore/pseuds/Nonaynevernomore
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Reagan realizes that Andrew ignores the story of how Alice Lucy Rackham made a fool of herself to prove her great value to Cara and insure their friendship, she takes it on herself to tell the whole tale. Even if it means embarassing her cousin.<br/>Or how it took just one night for everyone to fall in love with Alice's adorkableness.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Night You Came Into My Life (aka The Red Rackham Case)

It was Wednesday evening and the _Oncifelis Hit_ , Valeton’s best campus bar, was packed. As usual the girls had let Andrew manage to get them a table, leaving him with his arms full of jackets and bags, while they took charge of the drinks. One of the great things about Andrew Prichard was that he was a giant and a charming one. His stature permitted him to localize the nearest table available faster than most people in the room and leap to it in three paces while his smile usually lead women to convince their boyfriend to quit the argument and just leave him the table. Alice finally spotted him in the crowd and, followed closely by Cara and Reagan, who had decided to pay her cousin an unexpected visit, did her best to navigate amongst the patrons without spilling the beverages she was carrying. She couldn’t help a sigh of relief when she handed Andrew his pint.

“Here. Mission accomplished!”

“Good Job with the table Prichard! We can even see the band from here” added Cara with a smile.

“What can I say? I’m the best.”

Cara and Alice shook their head. “Don’t let your head inflate too much or we won’t be able to see the stage anymore” teased the latest.

“The band must be really good” beamed Cara. “The last time I saw the place being this crammed it was during the welcome party on our first year.”

“That’s it!”

They all turned toward Reagan.

“What?” asked her cousin.

“This place. I knew I’d been here before. It was that time when you called me to help you with Cara.”

“What? What happened with Cara?” asked a concerned Andrew.

Alice knew exactly what Reagan was referring too. She also knew that she didn’t want Andrew to know about it, so she tried to change the subject by pointing to some guy wearing neon yellow shorts with green flip-flops. It had been in vain, for Cara seemed in the mood to recall the sad way their friendship started.

“Oh right, you were at the party too!”

“Alice had been so scared you two wouldn’t get on. Do you remember calling me at 6.am because you dreamed that Cara was throwing a party in your room and you couldn’t get in because she had no idea who you were and…”

“Reagan…” Alice warned her cousin.

“Wait, did you really fear that Cara didn’t like you?”

Andrew couldn’t imagine that those two could ever be anything but best friends.  
Sure Alice could be a bit awkward and reserved whereas Cara was quite popular and well-loved around campus, but he hadn’t thought they had had any difficulty getting along.

“Holly Sneakers! Don’t tell me you don’t know the story of how Alice Lucy Rackham tried to befriend Cara Graves by proving that she could be the coolest person ever. Or as I like to call it…”

“The Red Rackham Case” finished the three young women in unison.

“The Red Rackham Case?”

Reagan’s eyes lit up. She leaned forward, resting her elbows on the table, ready to captivate her audience.

“It all started one October morning.”

Alice wished the ground would open up and swallow her whole.

“I had just come back from that party Alex threw in his apartment when Alice called.”

“Who’s Alex?” asked Andrew. Alice saw this as an opportunity to change the subject but they were both shushed and asked to focus on the real story here.

“Reaaaaagaaaaaaan. I’m going to die alone surrounded by cats if you don’t help me. Pleeaaaase be my knight in shining armor.”

“I never said that!” Alice stopped her, indignant.

“My tale, my words. Plus, you totally said that. So where was I? Yes, right. So Alice had started her first year at Valeton a few weeks ago and though she really liked Cara she just had no idea how to interact with her without making a total fool of herself or sounding like Miss Know-it-all-to-the-point-I-sound-rude. To put it in her own dorky words, she was Hermione and Cara was Harry at the beginning of their relationship. When I asked her if they ended up being friends she remarked that yes they did, but only after she had been attacked by a troll in the loo. That is when I got an idea.”

“A stupid idea” mumbled Alice.

“She had told me a few days ago that there would be a welcoming party but she wasn’t sure she would go because she’s Alice. Go to the party! I said, mingle a bit, have fun, drink. She answered that she would try but knowing that she wouldn’t just take my advice and that it would take someone to kick her ass for her to actually go, I drove all the way up here and made sure she wouldn’t bolt.  
I arrived late in the afternoon and found her sitting on her bed staring at a sheet of paper resting on her lap. She had written down three words: Pie, Pizza, Disney. When I asked her if she was brainstorming for a new story she just frowned and answered that no, she was writing down what she thought Cara liked about her. I took the sheet of paper and put it on her desk. The party was in three hours, there was no time to lose. Lucky for her I had brought with me several dresses and some jewelry. We settled on a little black dress, long earrings and a pair of black stilettos. You should have seen her, she was gorgeous.”

“I looked and felt ridiculous.”

“It was quite a sight” smiled Cara.

“Is that a compliment or…”

“Once we were both ready” Reagan continued “it was time to join Cara at the bar. Well, here. Cara happened to be quite nice and took Alice under her wing, introducing her to her friends, asking her if class had been fine today. I couldn’t see why the hell Alice thought she needed my help. Unless it wasn’t friendship but flirting tips she needed. ”

“You thought Alice had a crush on Cara?”

“Well she was acting all weird and moping because Cara would not pay more attention to her. She was a bloody Radiohead song. You know: I’m creep, I’m a weirdo, what the hell am I doing here. Those were actually her very words to me while we were ordering drinks that night. No you’re right cuz, it was more like: They’re all weirdoes, they’re all creeps. Ouch! Right fine. Holly Sneakers! So we had a few drinks and then after her second or third mojito she told me she was going to prove that she could be the coolest person ever. She was a party-animal. She was Red Rackham. And then she strolled toward the bar to order another mojito.”

“While singing: _Drink and the devil had done for the rest. Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!_ ” laughed Cara.

“I still don’t get why Red Rackham” said Andrew.

“When we were children, Alice insisted on dressing up as a Pirate for Halloween cause Mary Head and Anne Bonny were the coolest chicks in whole History and she was Alice Rackham and a redhead and that made her, I quote, a rare seadog.”

“I was reading Tintin comics at the time and thought Red Rackham sounded cool and then my mom told me the character was made after a real pirate that had women on his crew. I was seven.”

“So our very own pirate drank rum until she had enough Dutch courage to join the dance floor”

“And that is when they played Life Less Ordinary” added Cara. “I remember realizing that Alice was standing next to me singing the song by heart. After that we spent a good part of the night talking about music.”

“True love” Reagan laughed. “But Alice had had too many mojitos by that time and was running around talking to herself way too loud and we lost her. A few minutes later we found her standing on a table, having an argument about books…”

“Chivalric romance” Cara remembered. “To make a point she had started describing the people around her as they do in romance. A long list of people and their attributes. It latest a good five minutes until we helped her down the table and decided it was time to go home. Also during those ten minutes we let her wander out of our sight she managed to get beer spilled on her dress and was now wearing a guy’s jacket on top of it. When we asked her where she got the jacket she just mumbled something about a knight saving her honor. The morning after she had one of the most impressive hang-over I had ever seen and couldn’t remember most of the night except for one thing.”

“Red Rackham” Andrew guessed.

“Exactly” confirmed Reagan. “She did not remember anything about the knight who saved her virtue unfortunately.”

“It’s a shame you didn’t see her that night Prichard.”

“Good god Cara no” Alice interjected. “First of all, that dress was too much and the stilettos almost got me killed several times. No I’m personally glad we didn’t know each other at that time. And for the record, I did not pine over Cara. Your story is way over-exaggerated. I… Fine let me give you my side of the story.

You should know first that I had known Cara for two or three weeks and we didn’t see each other much because our schedules didn’t match and she spent a lot of time with her friends from class and I spent a lot of time at the library. But I thought we were going along quite well. What gave me doubts was hearing one of her friends saying that I wasn’t cool enough. I was a nerdy weirdo incapable of having fun, which, by the way, is ridiculous. I can have fun. I am fun. And so I decided to prove it to Cara and that person in particular.”

“Who was it?” asked Andrew.

“Ben Carter” answered Cara. “I don’t think you know him. But what you’re not telling Alice is that you had a little crush on Ben. That’s why you took it so badly.”

“Did not.”

“Did too.”

“Did not. So when I called Reagan to get some news and we ended up talking about how things were going on at Valeton, I did not cry for help. What I did was telling her my plan. I was going to prove that I am one very cool girl indeed. That’s when she thought she had a better plan than me and ruined everything. Why do I always let you get me in such terrible situations? The little black dress was not just a little black dress. No, it was skin-tight with an open back and safety pins marking the curves of my hips and thighs. I only let Reagan take me out like this because she made sure I had three whiskeys before we left the room. To give me spirit she said. I remember it because I thought it was a very accurate pun.  
We went to the bar. The fresh air had sobered me a bit but now that we were in a closed space filled with people and alcohol I was starting to feel a bit giddy. We found Cara and we talked a bit about everything and nothing when Ben arrived. He was so obnoxious. I tried to avoid him, to not pay him any attention but he was just right in my face all the damn time and I could hear him mocking me. So I decided to just show him what I’m capable of.”

“And we all know how this always ends up” whispered Cara.

“So I ordered a mojito, got my courage up and joined the girls on the dance floor. I actually had a really good time. We had a really good DJ that night. Cara and I already knew we shared an interest in music, although she was obviously more passionate about it than I was. What we didn’t know was that we both loved one band in particular, Carbon Leaf. I had a few more drinks but everything was fine. I don’t know if it was the song or the alcohol but I was now sure that Cara was perfect and that we would get along forever. I might have said that we should take the sea and become the coolest pirates ever known. That’s when I had to go to the loo and on the way there some random guy spilled his beer on me. I don’t remember what we said to each other. It’s all a bit blurry. We both shouted that I’m pretty certain of. Then he left and I looked for you two and some guy gave me his jacket and that’s it. So yes, I made a fool of myself but Reagan is the one to blame. Reagan and alcohol and Ben Carter. Ben who, oddly enough, never spoke to us after that.”

“I think you scared him off” joked Cara.

“Mission accomplished then Captain Rackham” added Andrew with a wink. “Not everyone might have thought that you were the coolest girl that night but I’m sure you made quite an impression.”

What the girls ignored was that Andrew had been at the party and witnessed part of the events.  
He had noticed Alice during class. She was that strange redhead who always had the answer to everything and was eager to share her knowledge with everyone. People were impressed by her and this added to her reserved nature didn’t help her making friends. It didn’t seem to upset her though for she seemed too busy studying to pay attention to her classmates. He had started thinking of her as Hermione while observing her during class and wondered if she was always like that. If Hermione and 3PO had a daughter, he once thought and then his mind had wandered off.  
So when he saw her that night looking ridiculously gorgeous, singing out loud and dancing like nothing else mattered anymore he just couldn’t take his eyes off of her. It wasn’t lust; it wasn’t a sudden crush either. She had bewitched him with her wild dance and red hair and craziness. The always proper student had transformed into a wild creature and he felt the urge to understand this phenomenon even if it took years of constant study.

They also ignored that he had been standing close during the beer accident. He had tried to convince the guy to apologize and then when he realized that it was a lost cause just told the jerk to fuck off. He had awkwardly tried to help Alice drying her dress with paper napkins. The stain wouldn’t leave and she had looked so ready to run after the guy and punch him in the face that for a moment he must have frozen and stare. Alice had scowled at him, asking if he had a problem too. Before he even realized what he was doing he had removed his jacket and put it on her shoulders. “It will hide the stain” he had said with a smile and her eyes lit up when she thanked him.

She didn’t remember any of this. He realized that much when she didn’t say anything during their next class; didn’t give him his jacket back. But now he knew she wasn’t some unattainable goddess of knowledge. She had some Athena in her but she was mostly human and he just wanted to know that side of her better, see more of that awkward adorableness in action.

So when their professor announced that he wanted his class to split in groups of two or three and hand him an essay written in common on the evolution of the idea of aesthetics in arts, Andrew jumped on the occasion and asked Alice to write the paper with him. After eyeing him for a few seconds, pondering on the offer, she finally agreed. She didn’t hide what idea she had already formed of him. She saw him as a slacker who could always count on his charms to get himself out of trouble. She wouldn’t have any of it. If he wanted to work with her he would have to do his part. She e-mailed him a working schedule and they met every day at the library. They got an A+ and their professor congratulated them on the idea of organizing their propositions using the frame of a dialogue not unlike Bertold Brecht in his _Messingkauf Dialogues._

After that Alice’s view of Andrew changed. He was still a charming slacker sometimes but she could also see the good in him and how incredibly smart he actually was. Sometime she would shake her head wondering why he wouldn’t put his knowledge and cleverness to better use. Most of the time though she was fascinated by his passion for filmmaking and his ability to see the best in people and catch it on camera.

“Hey, it’s our song!” exclaimed Cara, interrupting Andrew’s train of thought.

Cara and Alice joined the song, head thrown back, body swaying on their chairs.

_The night you came into my life_   
_Well it took the bones of me, took the bones of me_   
_You blew away my storm and strife_   
_And shook the bones of me, shook the bones of me_

Andrew smiled, happy to be part of Alice’s world. She caught his gaze and returned his smile.

Cara shook her head. Whether they were prepared to acknowledge it or not, it was clear to see that they made each other’s life less ordinary.

 


End file.
